Readers of Fifty Shades of Grey and Bared to You will
savor a visit to Club Inferno, the erotic playground where glitz and glamour
mix with leather and whips.

Deep in the
shadows of her exclusive fashion resort, Couture, Colleen Bryant presides over
a much more intimate world: Club Inferno. The successful businesswoman and sex
instructor has built an empire that caters to the BDSM elite, but now she finds
herself longing for something a bit more ordinary: a man to love. She’s not
sure how to find someone who will accept what she does for a living—or the
kinks that drive her wild—until her old flame, ex-pro football player Chase
Fairwood, comes back in her life.

There’s no woman
as hot, sexy, or exciting as Colleen—and Chase knows it. He also knows he’s man
enough to play her games, and to give as good as he gets. His return to Club
Inferno reignites Colleen’s scorching demands, along with a new determination
to test his resolve. Soon he’s competing against a rival Dom to brand Colleen
as his own. But Chase has a secret weapon: the burning desire to offer his
body—and his heart—in sweet surrender.

“I don’t
have time to play with you.” She pulled back on Dante’s hair and spoke into his
ear. He smelled nice; Dior’s new men’s fragrance, if she wasn’t mistaken.

“Make
time.” He pushed away from the wall, quicker than she had been expecting.

They
squared off. The slight fatigue disappeared in a surge of adrenaline. She
wouldn’t bottom for him, but if he’d let her throw him around, Colleen would
consider getting sweaty with him. They circled each other. She was pretty sure
he’d underestimate her, so they would have to work out a safe word and some
parameters. It all seemed like too much work for too little effort, though.

“I’ll
have you begging for release,” he vowed, and then spoiled the wonderful threat
by tugging on his facial hair.

Visions
of her being tied to a railroad track in a black-and-white film while a fast
Charleston played made her smirk. Still, it was worth one last try to see how
serious he wanted to play. Unlike the senator or the other Domme scenes she
ran, if they were going to do this, she wanted complete control and at the end
would satisfy herself with his body.

“I have a
better idea,” she said, stepping into his personal space again. “I’ll strap you
down and push every hard limit you have. Pegging, CBT, and anything else that
crosses my evil little mind. If you survive, I’ll ride you until you’re hoarse
from screaming.”

Colleen
watched his expression go from interest to horror and back to normal. He was at
a loss for words. A small ping of disappointment pulsed through her. Eh, this
was rapidly becoming boring. She was his boss. Either he’d hold back for fear
of losing his job or he’d try to dominate her into giving him more power. It
was one of the reasons she didn’t screw around with the dungeon staff, no
matter how tempting it was to teach an overconfident Dom what hardcore meant.

“You’re
the one who could use some punishment time,” he said, folding his arms across
his chest.

It was a
lame comeback, more for his pride than for escalating whatever sexual tension
she was trying to build.

Moving
quickly, Colleen grasped his chin. Dante’s jaw clenched and his eyes went wide
at the affront. “You’re asking to be at the end of my whip.”

“I dole
out the discipline,” he snarled, jerking out of her grip.

“Teach
your class.” She gave him a mild slap on the cheek and turned away from him.

“The next time, I’m not letting you off so
easy.” Colleen knew for a fact Dante didn’t try this shit with any Club Inferno
members, so she wasn’t concerned for his professionalism. But lately he had
seemed restless and been flirting with her more. As if he didn’t have over
twenty subs of his own to play with.

Lips Aren’t Just for
Smiling

By

Jamie K. Schmidt

Winter has done a number
on me.I can’t wait for the late spring
and summer months, not only so I can thaw out a little and put the Alpaca socks
away, but also so my body gets back to normal.I’ve used bath fizzies with coconut oil and sugar scrubs to make me feel
all polished and shiny, but I wanted something a little more soothing than Chapstick
on my lips.I remember fondly the Dr.
Pepper Bonnie Bell lip smackers and the Avon bubble gum lip gloss in those cool
little tubes.They had tint, shine, and
soothed my lips.I went searching to
find a recipe that would do all those things.And the big caveat – it had to have ingredients that I had readily on
hand.I was looking for a project that I
could fit in between writing books that would let me stretch my crafty muscles,
but not be too expensive or too much work.

Unfortunately, one thing I
did not have on hand was beeswax, which is great stuff.It holds the lip gloss together so it doesn’t
get all runny in your purse.I had a
great time on Pinterest, seeing a recycled Altoids tin used for the lip
gloss.That’s a lot of lip gloss.But I also didn’t have those cute little
circle plastic boxes on hand either.So
my quest got a little harder.

In my internet search I
found how to make lip gloss out of crayons -- which I thought was
brilliant.Then I thought I was over
thinking the whole process.When I was a
kid, my mom would smear Vaseline petroleum jelly on my chapped cheeks and
lips.It tasted awful.But it worked.So I would need something to color the
petroleum jelly and make it pleasant to kiss me.I read that you could use eye shadow,
lipstick pieces, Kool-Aid/Crystal Light, and beets.

I was stuck.I could go the easy route which is basically
melt lipstick and petroleum jelly in the microwave and mix it together.Then pour it into the little containers I
found in the travel section of Wal-Mart.It seems like cheating and not much of a craft to do it that way. I
might as well just buy a lip gloss.However, the other way would involve me spending way too much time and
money on Mountain Rose Herbs.com and The Sage.com-- which while being a lot of
fun, would require too much time and energy than I wanted to spend on this
project. And don't get me started on the DIY containers that you make by sawing
off the top of a soda bottle.It's
absolutely ingenious, but beyond my scope.Although, at some point I want to try it, as well as some of the more
complicated recipes I saw on YouTube that used beeswax and special oils.

I decided the best thing
to do was experiment and get my craft on.Here's what I learned in the process:

1. Don't use coconut
oil.It melts at a low temperature.Which means, if you have the lip gloss tube
in your pocket, it will leak all over.

2. If you are using
Kool-Aid, let the petroleum jelly cool a bit before adding it in.It still has to be liquid, but if you put it
in too hot, the grains in the powdered sugar mix won't dissolve and the color
will be uneven and the texture gritty.

3. I don't have the
patience to reuse old Chapstick containers or make my own.YMMV.I found containers in the dollar store and in the travel section in Wal-Mart.If I were to do these in bulk, I'd buy them
from an online retailer.

4. Melted petroleum jelly
is hot coming out of the microwave.Use
an oven mitt to take the container out.

5. Oil and water do not
mix.Neither does petroleum jelly and
liquid.Stick with the powders, it's
easier.

Spoon the petroleum jelly
and the honey into a microwave safe container.Microwave the mixture for 30 seconds.This should liquefy your ingredients.Use an oven mitt or something to protect your hands as you take the
container out of the microwave.The
contents will be molten, so be careful.Let
it cool for a few seconds and gradually add in the Kool Aid, stirring briskly.
Keep stirring until the powder is dissolved.Spoon it into the containers and set it aside to solidify.

When it's solid, smear it
on, pucker up, and kiss someone you love.Now, you can sit back and read a book while the honey and petroleum
jelly soothes your lips and keeps them soft and kissable.My new release, Fever, is the third book in
my Club Inferno series.If you want to
heat up your next lip gloss, try using apple pie spice and stirring in some
cinnamon!

USA Today Bestselling
author, Jamie K. Schmidt is a hybrid author who has over thirty short stories
published in small press and ezines, and a variety of novellas and books
online. Her Club Inferno series from Random House has been in Amazon's top 100
ebooks sold and Barnes and Noble's top 10. She has a dragon paranormal romance
series at Entangled Publishing. Book one of the Emerging Queens series is The
Queen's Wings.

Jamie holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the State University of New York at
New Paltz in Secondary Education English, which is a fancy way of saying she
went to college to teach high school English. When that didn't pan out, she
worked as a call center manager, a Tupperware consultant, a paralegal, and
finally a technical writer for a major conglomerate company. She is an active
member in the Romance Writers of America (RWA). When not writing, Jamie relaxes
with a mug of hot tea and knits or makes beaded jewelry.